Afterglow | The Clone Wars

2 | Brain Invaders

"I see that you're back to one hundred percent, old man" she fired back, hiding the smile on her lips.

"We're only a couple of years apart, Dakota. Nothing to get too proud over" Obi-Wan pointed out, coming to stand beside her. He surveyed the damage "What Ashoka and Barris did was really exceptional".

"They eliminated one of our biggest problems here, I'm so proud of them. Now on to the next one" she looked at him "This battle costed us many great clones, and the one responsible is still out there... ".

Obi-Wan could practically see what she was about to say before she could even say it "You plan to go out and search for him?"

"We can't spare any more clones to do so, and I was never that bad of a tracker so maybe I'll be able to pick up on his trail... maybe"

"I believe that you can, but going alone is never my favorite plan of action" Obi-Wan rubbed his chin, hoping to change her mind.

"I'm reminded of a time where you arrived alone on Geonosis with nothing but a lightsaber and a mullet, and ended up getting captured by Dooku. Was that you, or am I confusing you with someone else?" She asked, taking a step towards her speeder that was parked a meter away by the edge of the cliff.

Obi-Wan didn't respond, his tongue had been tied. He just gave her a blue eyed glare "Hold down the fort for me Obi-Wan, I'll keep in touch"

"Please do, we don't know if there's anything left out there"

She gave a thumbs up over her shoulder before taking off down the cliff with the speeder, and shooting off into the distance. Obi-Wan gave a hopeless smile and turned back to the clone troopers.

~

Conveniently, as Dakota started her search for Poggle, a vicious sandstorm had swept across the dust covered ground. Goggles covered her green eyes as her speeder swerved around in the nearly blinding terrain. Fortunately, she had been able to pick up on Poggles trail just before the full force of the storm hit.

He was heading for an abandoned temple many miles away from the Republic camp. She knew that Poggle wasn't smart enough to cover his tracks properly. The communication link on her wrist was blinking, signaling that someone, probably Obi-Wan, was trying to get in contact.

She neared the deserted temple, being able to see enough through the goggles. There didn't seem to be another soul in sight. Dakota pulled her speeder up to the gate of the temple and stepped off. A dark, ominous structure laid out in front of her. It looked rather haunted with its arching entrance. These sorts of things never frightened her.

She made her way to the blown open entrance and entered, finally being allowed to remove her goggles since the structure blocked off the wind and sand. As she unhooked her goggles, she turned on her small holo-projector to call back Obi-Wan and Master Mundi.

"Masters" she greeted the two Jedi once their holographic figures appeared from the projector "I'm here at the temple, and Poggle has definitely been here, but..." she looked around the destroyed foyer. Cracks in the ceiling caused for the building to collapse in some areas. And there also appeared to be solid geonosian statues scattered about randomly. Something seemed off here, she felt it.

"... there's no sign of him here".

"Don't go any further until we can send support" Obi-Wan ordered "This storm is making it hard for us to read your transmission as it is. There isn't much that we can do now"